Leading the Edinburgh Fringe: ‘I’m Not Intimidated’

EDINBURGH — A storefront on High Street — the fast-beating heart of the massive Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which this month offers over 3,200 shows — is where T-shirts, souvenirs and tickets are sold. And in the back of that shop is an office, a quiet refuge from the madness of the street, where Shona McCarthy sat the other day, talking about her new job.

Running the organization comes with significant responsibility, not to mention the weight of history. Though today there are Fringe festivals all over the world, the one in Edinburgh, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary next summer, is the true original.

“You’ll never even hear me say, ‘Do you know what you really have to go and see — you shouldn’t miss this one,’ because we don’t do that,” Ms. McCarthy explained. “We promote the Fringe on behalf of everybody.”

Ms. McCarthy grew up in a small town in Northern Ireland. (“Seamus Heaney territory, you know? ‘Little House on the Prairie’ stuff. But I had an incredible art teacher and a brilliant English teacher, and I guess that was the starting point.”) She went on to oversee various Irish arts festivals as well as Cinemagic, an international film festival for young people.

In fact, she wasn’t even job seeking when her current post opened up: “Because it was the Fringe, I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m really interested.’”

While High Street bustled, Ms. McCarthy, who seemed chipper, confident and serene, talked about her new position and future plans. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

What is it like to take over an organization that already has a staff, a structure and a history of success?

It’s a total luxury, because my previous experience has largely been setting things up from scratch. I keep kind of snickering to myself.

I also have to say there’s something very, very particular about the Edinburgh approach and the Scottish approach that I haven’t found anywhere else. There’s already such a sophisticated understanding of not just why initiatives like the festival are important for the economy, but also the intrinsic value of culture and the social impact that projects like this can have in terms of civic pride.

You’re coming in after years of steady growth in both number of productions and ticket sales. Are you intimidated about having to keep up the pace?

I’m not intimidated, and continuous growth is not our primary objective. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe should be whatever size it needs to be to accommodate the artists from all continents who want to have a voice here, and the venues who want to host them. So long as it continues to have that open-access principle at its core, then we will be doing our jobs.

One thing about open access: You still have to be able to afford to participate. You’ve said you intend to prioritize a hard look at affordability for artists. Any discoveries yet?

All of that we’re going to be really looking at post this year’s festival. I wanted to get through my first Fringe before making any real judgments.

But I know there are genuinely real barriers for people. I do think if we find that the range of accommodations and the cost of accommodations is becoming a significant barrier to people, particularly at the ground level — young people just trying to put on their first-ever show — we have some strategies and ideas that we will look at putting in place.

But what can you do? Try to offer discounts? Build dorms?

Definitely not build dorms. Something we are really interested in piloting next year: There are a lot of wealthy landowners in Edinburgh; people have houses and apartments across the city and those people could be persuaded to do a kind of ‘adopt an artist’ thing.

What impact do you think Brexit might have on the Fringe?

Everybody’s really in the dark at the moment. The two things that we will keep a very close eye to are how it affects any of our potential backers, and then the other thing is, I guess just reputationally for the U.K. as a whole. I mean, could people say, ‘Well, they didn’t want to be a part of us, so. …’ I doubt that, because we’ve always been very clear in our messaging that we are going to redouble our efforts to find pathways for artists from other parts of the world to come here.

How do you plan to honor the festival’s anniversary next year?

There are three main tenets that we’re building it around, and the first is reflection. Looking back at the founding principles, pulling out the stories of people who have come here and met here, and the stories of careers that have been launched and developed here. Then there’s going to be the celebration of where we are now, so we’re going to find ways to thank the city, thank the local people for being so supportive of this thing for 70 years.

The third piece is going to be about looking forward and international connection. We’re going to work with the other Fringes around the world to celebrate the moment of the birth of this concept in Edinburgh.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Festival’s Leader Inherits a Luxury (and Hopes to Extend It). Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe